IHF Corporate Leadership Council

The launch meeting of the CLC that gathered leading corporations and IHF Governing Council members was held in Paris on June 16. The initiative received strong support from the meeting participants and a second meeting was organized on August 4 & 5 in IHF’s headquarters in Ferney-Voltaire, France. The objective of the two-day workshop was to define the project on which the Council could work on collectively. In order to prepare the meeting, prior to the workshop, we had conducted a survey among our members to identify their priorities. Patient safety & quality care, patient access to care & continuity of care, operating efficiency, and health workforce challenges represented the main priorities around which the workshop discussions were organized. The discussions were very fruitful as a project was chosen and outlined.

Leading international corporations in the field of healthcare would assess the facilities, operations and efficiency processes of three hospitals located in different geographical areas (North America, Europe, and emerging world) and propose solutions that would enhance the hospital efficiency and productivity while improving patient safety. The classification drafted during the workshop including elements such as measurement systems, leadership, utilities (water, air, steam), cost, materials / products / equipment, culture /behavior, physical facilities, hospital stay, and human resources management will need to be refined through a dialogue with healthcare leaders during the course of the project development stage. Based on this assessment, each company using its field of expertise would then bring forward possible improvements that hospitals would make to enhance their performance and improve patient safety. More specifically, each corporate participant would evaluate the hospital and deliver a solution which outlines the changes and measure that would need to be implemented. The assessments and solutions would be offered free of cost by the corporate members, but the implementation would be financed by the hospital. The project would be designed to be „cash neutral? for hospitals, meaning that the savings made from the implementation of the proposed solution would finance the loan that the hospital would take to implement the solution.

We would like take this opportunity and thank the members who were able to participate in the workshop: Canadian Healthcare Association, Unió Catalana d’Hospitals (Spain), and the Tunisian Ministry of Public Health. The insight which they provided during the discussions greatly contributed to shaping the selected project, and advance this IHF initiative.

We would also like to invite all other members, who have not yet had the opportunity to participate in the Council meetings and discussions, to actively join the Council. Each member’s country perspective will allow the Council to become a truly international initiative that would be beneficial to all members.

Please don’t hesitate to contact Ioana Rusu at the IHF Secretariat if you require further information: ioana[SPAMFILTER]ihf-fih.org or +33 (0)4 50 42 60 04.